BP’s hopes of reaching a settlement over the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe were dealt a blow today after it emerged that the US Government intends to prove gross negligence or wilful misconduct at trial.

BP has agreed to settle claims from thousands of fishermen who lost work and others who said they were harmed by the oil giant’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

A US judge has ruled that Halliburton can avoid paying most of the pollution claims that resulted from the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill because it was shielded in a contract with well owner BP.

An internal BP email conversation revealed today that officials were warning that if the Deepwater Horizon well was not protected by the blow-out preventer at the drill site, crude oil could burst into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 3.4 million gallons a day.

BP is accusing Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence about the quality of its cement that went into the Deepwater Horizon well that exploded, killing 11 people and causing America’s worst offshore oil spill.

Relatives flew over Gulf of Mexico waters where 11 oil rig workers died a year ago, residents gathered in prayer vigils onshore and President Barack Obama vowed to hold BP and others accountable for “the painful losses that they’ve caused”.

BP has not paid its chief executive a bonus in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, its annual report revealed today, but two senior directors will receive combined payouts worth nearly £700,000 (€817,117) on top of their regular salaries.

BP's new chief executive shifted focus at the oil giant to the "future rather than the legacy of the past" today as it revealed the Gulf of Mexico oil spill saw the company sink to its first loss in nearly 20 years.

Decisions intended to save time and money created an unreasonable risk that triggered the largest offshore oil spill in US history, which could happen again without significant reforms, the top-level panel probing the BP blowout said tonight.

The US government’s incident commander for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill said today that BP’s blown-out well is expected to be permanently sealed and declared dead by Sunday, nearly five months after a rig explosion set off the disaster.